Long before I started my formal training in energy medicine or shamanic work, I resonated with the Goddess and nature traditions. I paid attention to the cycles of the moon, and to the seasons in the wheel of the year.
 
I wanted to give my daughter that way of seeing the natural world too. When she was little she loved to mark the new moon and the full moon with me. On the new moon we would go around the house opening the windows and doors and smudge every room with sage, saying goodbye to all the old stale energy. We would sing songs and our dogs would follow us like it was a parade. On the full moon we would carefully carry a candle throughout the house into each room welcoming in the light and its blessings.  As she got older, she lost interest, so I let that ritual go.  And that was okay, it gave her the foundation that I wanted her to have. And it gave me a consistency that I needed in my moon rituals then, plus a lot of sweet memories.
 
In my own practice my attention would fluctuate.  Sometimes I would pay attention to the moon phases and how they matched up with my moon cycles. Often I would do short ceremonies or write out intentions with the new and the full moon, but not every month. Other times it was more of a mental tracking as I got more into astrology and followed the moon’s trek through the signs. Sometimes I was just too busy to notice the moon at all. So our relationship has been all over the map.
 
Then in this past year the moon started reaching out to me in my journeys and meditations and giving me short lessons about herself and other nature beings. I also began getting all kinds of synchronicities – receiving emails and links to podcasts about other people feeling called to renew their connection with the moon cycles. My Higher Self brought through messages about working with her by keeping track of her again.  This is one of my favorites:
 
“There are archangels of the cosmos that hold the moon dear, it has been imbued with Divine light. What is your special connection with the moon? It is your water connection – time and tides. You are a force of water and so you move with the moon. Not just on a physical level, but on a metaphysical level. To understand what that means is to immerse yourself in the mystery of moonlight. It unravels knots. It wakes your cosmic meridians. It becomes part of you that you revel in. We want you to be aware of her, just like you are aware of any loved one. When she is coming home. When she is going out. When you connect with her you will receive the gift of knowing within you that lights up. There is no other way to explain this.”
 
She is a great teacher because she is visible, and we can feel her on an energetic level and work with her on an emotional and mental level. Her changing aspects reflect facets of our inner selves; waxing and waning, full and dark, each one familiar yet unique in our expression.
 
In the morning I sit at my altar and look at my moon calendar as part of my spiritual practice.
 
Where is the moon today?
What does her energy feel like?
How best can I work with her this cycle?  
Where am I in my own cycle of becoming and blossoming?      
    
I feel like I have reconnected with a whole family of wise aunties and grandmothers. And I feel like I have renewed a primal part of myself.

The Divine Feminine is the innate essence of the earth we live on, the Mother from which all we are and all we have was created. She is also Shakti; the fundamental creative power of the universe.

She is in all of us, she's in our right brain hemisphere, and the left side of our body. She's in how we listen, forgive, intuit and empath.  She’s there when we feel compassion and gratitude.  When we nurture our silence, going within to meditate or pray, we are connecting to the deep Divine Feminine inside all of us.

As we step outside onto the ground with our bare feet, we are connecting with her, skin to skin.

As we tend to our garden; planting seeds, pulling weeds, harvesting, and composting we are working with her and her rhythms.

As we watch the moon change nightly in the sky, we are connecting with her cycle of birth, growth, completion, and renewal.

There are a myriad of Goddesses, archetypes, and stories that describe her, these are windows into working with her as a primal force. Some may resonate strongly with us from our cultural upbringing, others have come to us from outside our knowledge base as emissaries to draw us purposefully into her energy.  As we open ourselves to her flowing grace and power, she will teach us how best to connect with her.

If we have worked with MariEL, we have amplified our connection to the Divine Feminine to be a conscious conduit for her primal energy.  Our vibration resonates with hers, and we will find ourselves being drawn into places and situations that are in need of that energy to come into balance, or healing or harmony. Many times we won’t realize that, we’ll just be living our day-to-day life, going where we need to go and doing what we need to do. But if we apply our spiritual practice; through meditation, prayer, shamanic journey, we begin to tap into another level of being, and we will be able to intuitively know when we are being called into service.

Once attuned to MariEL, we are radiating that energy 24/7 and when we work consciously with our intuition, we may often know how to be of service. Sometimes it is simply to BE, to radiate the light that we are into the area, the group, the situation. Other times we may be out in nature and are drawn to take off our shoes and form a conduit directly with our body to the land, channeling MariEL to the area.

If we find ourselves in a difficult situation with other people, wondering what THAT is all about, consider the possibility that we were drawn there in Divine perfection to add the light of our being to the situation to raise consciousness. And also of course to shine light upon the shadows of our own issues that are coming up to be healed - that’s the “practice” part of our spiritual practice.

No matter what form of spiritual practice we use; MariEL, Usui Reiki, Shamanic journey, meditation, prayer, kirtan, dance, if we set our intention to connect to the Divine Feminine, she will be there. By setting a second intention to allow our intuition to be open and receptive, we will be consciously interacting with and embodying her Divine essence.

Goddess knowledge card deck by Susan Seddon-Boulet

Anyone can work with the Divine Feminine. She is in everything. When the Divine Feminine comes into your life and wants to work with you, it is a call to your heart. I was always open to Her, even though I got very little of Her at the Lutheran church my parents took me to when I was a child.  Mother Mary seemed to play such a bit part in the bible studies we had, but I was able to connect with Her later in my studies of Eastern theology and European Wicca. I explored Goddesses in all their forms and archetypes, and read wonderful spiritual authors like Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Caroline Myss that delved into Her myths and mysteries.

I was primarily working with the mental plane with information though, I did not know how to really connect with Her on a spiritual level until I started training in energy work with an intuitive teacher. In our classes my fellow students were connecting with their guides and Spirit all around me, but I wasn’t getting anything I could clearly relate to. On the last morning of the four-day class, before I left the house I asked my Spirit guides to please connect with me so that I could know they were there. On the way to the class driving down the highway, a car decided to move into my lane while I was still in it. As that happened, some force immediately took the steering wheel and moved my car out of the way and it missed me by inches. Heart still pounding, I related my story to the class, and the knowing that my guides were with me right then, but still such a mystery to me. The teacher then had me get on the table and began a demonstration of how to use crystals in energy work. As she rolled two quartz crystal balls up my legs and torso I got the sense of being filled with a pure white light that was blinding. A powerful yet loving feminine presence surrounded me, I could sense Her and I knew She was the source of all Goddesses and Divine Feminine energy. Tears streamed down my face as I knew Her and could hear Her speaking to me.

I did not have another experience as powerful as that with Her until I took a class and attunement in MariEL Medicine. My Usui Reiki teacher, Kelly Jackson, recommended MariEL to me when she felt my bond to the Goddess energy.  Two amazing things happened when I took the MariEL class. First, I was introduced to the Divine Feminine in a healing form that anyone can open a spiritual channel to by having an attunement and working with the symbols. The second was that the teacher, Cheri Melton, became a dear friend and mentor to me in spiritual work.

Although MariEL Medicine describes perfectly what I learned from Cheri, I added the “Reiki of the Divine Feminine” to it to reflect the Usui roots of its founder, Ethel Lombardi. She was a student of Hawayo Takata, the woman who brought Usui Reiki from Japan to North America.   Ethel was in a deep meditation when she was gifted with the healing modality of MariEL brought to her by three beings dressed in cloaks which she called The Monks.  She taught it as a heart centered, feminine practice that channels the energies of Mother Mary and the Elohim, which are said to be part of the Godhead who assisted in the creation of the universes.  Cheri channeled additional information in part from Mary and Ethel in a re-dreaming of the modality for the modern times, as the Divine Feminine is rising and the earth and her inhabitants are shifting into a new vibration of potential.

As I look back to that first experience with Her in that class twelve years ago, I can only marvel at the workings of Spirit that brought me to where I am today. I feel honored that I can offer the teachings and attunement of MariEL Medicine as part of my devotion to loving service of the Divine Feminine. It has deepened my spiritual bond with Her, and opened my heart to the river of compassion and strength that flows out from Her. For that I am truly grateful.